No further car shows to be held at Billing Aquadrome!

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humbucker
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No further car shows to be held at Billing Aquadrome!

Post by humbucker »

It's official! This year's VBOA National Rally was the last to be held at Billing Aquadrome. End of an era. Start of an error? Click here for the details: https://www.facebook.com/PerformanceVau ... 0861794573
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James McGrath
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Re: No further car shows to be held at Billing Aquadrome!

Post by James McGrath »

I knew it was coming but it's still very disappointing news.

The new Billing management must be full of killjoys if you ask me.
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Robsey
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Re: No further car shows to be held at Billing Aquadrome!

Post by Robsey »

Looking at the comments on Dan's link,
It appears that there was a defined decline in the quality / types of goods being sold and an epidemic of "locals" tampering and stealing parts off visitors cars.

Always sad when an institution comes to an end. Hopefully this will 'force' VBOA to relocate to a new show ground or may give rise to a new and approved organisation.
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humbucker
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Re: No further car shows to be held at Billing Aquadrome!

Post by humbucker »

The writing has been on the wall for some time. The complaints about parts being sold and traders stems from the owners of the venue citing some vintage bylaw or another that prevents goods being sold on site without liability or product indemnity insurance. When most of the traders are glorified car boot salesmen, it was always likely to be the case that they would smart at the suggestion of forking out hundreds of pounds just to shift some shonky old Vauxhall parts. Of course, many of the 'proper' traders (HS Components / Autovaux / Genuine Part Search) already have those insurance policies in place, so they were able to trade as normal, but the likes of Vauxhall Green Parts were nowhere to be seen. And it showed.

I spoke to the VBOA bods last night. They're having an emergency meeting with affiliated club reps this weekend to try to work out a way forward, but considering the fact that this isn't really much of a surprise (I predicted this happening in my Billing show report in the latest issue of Performance Vauxhall, and that was without having it confirmed by either the admin at Billing or anyone from VBOA (despite my attempts to extract info from both parties)), I should imagine that they've already given thought to alternative venues. Wicksteed Park was the front-runner when I spoke to VBOA types at Billing, while Peterborough Showground was dismissed as a candidate for future National Rallies because it's not really a family-friendly or 'holiday retreat' venue. Worth remembering that a lot of people spend a week holidaying on site either side of whichever car shows interest them when it comes to Billing Aquadrome. That's going to be a difficult requirement to satisfy.
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